Madeleine McCann was 3 years old when she disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Algarve, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. Since then, the case has not been closed and there is still no blame for the girl’s disappearance.
In recent weeks, new evidence has fueled investigations, with a German prosecutor saying he is “sure” that Christian Brueckner “is Madeleine McCann’s killer”.
The girl’s parents were having dinner with friends just 60 meters from the apartment where the girl was supposed to sleep with her twin brothers. At around 10pm, Kate McCann, the mother, went to check on the children and discovered that Madeleine was not in the property. The bedroom window was open.
The case had great worldwide repercussion, mainly due to the huge advertising campaign carried out by the girl’s parents to try to discover Madeleine’s whereabouts.
They traveled to several countries to promote the search for their daughter, having even met with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome.
About 600 people were investigated and four were considered suspects but later acquitted.
A large reward was offered for information on the girl’s whereabouts, including contributions from “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling, pop mogul Simon Cowell and businessman Richard Branson. Soccer players like David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo also asked for help locating the missing girl.
In September 2007, Portuguese police classified Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine’s parents, as suspects in their daughter’s disappearance, after DNA was found in a car the family rented 25 days after reporting the disappearance. They denied all the charges and subsequently the case against them was closed.
Madeleine’s parents received $1.1 million in libel damages and obtained apologies from various media outlets for their coverage of the case.
Change of those responsible for the investigation
After that, the Portuguese authorities handed over all their files to private investigators hired by the girl’s parents, who continued to follow up on possible leads.
In May 2011, they published a book called “Madeleine”, which talks about the search for their daughter. In July of the same year, information about a girl from India who appeared to be the missing girl caused a stir on social media, but the information was discarded, as were several other reports of possible “appearances” of the girl around the world.
Also in 2011, the case was taken over by the London Metropolitan Police. Among other measures, the British authorities opened new investigations into crimes that took place near the holiday resort.
The large-scale investigation became known as Operation Grange and, between 2019 and 2020, cost at least US$14.7 million.
In October 2013, British police published new sketches of possible suspects in the case. In this sense, new lines of investigation were opened, all related to a series of robberies at the spa where the girl disappeared.
In March 2014, British investigators said they were after a man who assaulted young British women while on vacation in Portugal in the years before and after McCann’s disappearance.
Identification of the main suspect
One of the most important milestones in the investigation took place in June 2020, when British and German authorities announced that they had identified a 43-year-old German national – at the time – as a suspect in the case.
Hans Christian Walters, state prosecutor for Brauwschweig, said the man was being investigated for murder. “By that, you can understand that we assume the girl is dead,” he told a published press conference. on video by CNN .
The suspect they were referring to was convicted drug dealer and child molester Christian Brueckner.
However, Brueckner was not charged with any crimes related to the disappearance. He is behind bars in Germany for raping a woman in the same area of the Algarve region where Madeleine disappeared in 2007. The suspect has denied involvement in McCann’s disappearance.
On April 22, 2022, Portuguese prosecutors said that a man was formally identified as a suspect in the disappearance. Prosecutors in Faro, the main city in the Algarve, did not release the name publicly, but said in a statement that German authorities had identified him as a suspect at his request.
Recently, on May 4, 2022, Hans Christian Wolters, a German prosecutor who has been investigating the case since 2020, said that detectives believe they have found “some facts, some new evidence”, adding: “We are sure that he [Brueckner] is the murderer of Madeleine McCann”.
The statute of limitations for this type of crime ends 15 years after the occurrence, which would happen on May 3 of this year, but Brueckner will still be properly investigated.
*with information from CNN, CNN Portugal and gives CNN Spanish
(published by Tiago Tortella, from CNN )
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
